CONTINUOUS FERMENTATION OF ALCOHOL-FREE BEER: BIOREACTOR HYDRODYNAMICS AND YEAST PHYSIOLOGY

Over the last years the development of new beer types such as alcohol–free beer has been increased. This development is motivated by the effort for a greater market share in the brewing industry and by the global trend to a healthier lifestyle without alcohol. Alcohol-free beer can be produced by removal of alcohol after regular beer fermentation or by methods that suppress alcohol formation. Suppression of alcohol formation or its early interruption, so that the alcohol content remains below 0.5 % (vol./vol.), is economically more attractive, since no additional equipment is necessary. Continuous fermentation using immobilized yeast cell systems have been developed successfully allowing the production of regular beer in as little as 2-3 day